


Calorify

by TwoCatsTailoring



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Minor Violence, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8029024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: A short fic inspired by nolifeinabox's Hydrophore. This is meant to happen right after that fic ends.





	Calorify

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hydrophore](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8018446) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



It was in the half-light just before the sun sank below the horizon that his bubble burst. That the hope and positivity that he’d held on to that this was just some sort of misunderstanding was removed without a doubt by a very real, very solid not dead ex-girlfriend who’s name over his partner’s phone had sent him into a tailspin a few hours before.

He toyed with what to say to her. What to even start a conversation with but he decided that even thinking about it was a waste so he didn’t. He shut that down, tucked it away with al the uncertainty and got down to the business at hand.

“Rude,” she started, as he got close enough to hear. “I’m sorry. I….”

“You still have everything?” He cut her off, watching her face go from unsure herself to stiff and frowning. He almost felt sorry for it. Almost. But he could not let this get complicated right now.

“Yeah. He was staying with me for a few days. It’s all still there.” There was an edge to her voice now and he mentally apologized, hoping she would understand.

__

All had been the overstatement of the century and Rude compartmentalized the knowledge that she was watching him go over and through the few things Reno had brought here – phone, change of clothes, the contents of his pockets.

“This is it?” It wasn’t all that he’d taken. Where was the rest? Rude had seen Reno off with a whole bag full of stuff and only a tiny fraction of that was here.

“He had a hotel room, but this is all he brought.” She was frowning. His dead ex was frowning over the tiny pile of personal effects that were laying on her kitchen table. None of which included a room key.

__

He was a Turk so finding out where Reno had booked in wasn’t hard. It took a few hours, but it wasn’t hard. But it was fruitless. The bag was there, nothing with it. None of the toiletries, not a damned thing that Reno had packed was there.

Rude regrouped, called Tseng. “Did you really see any of it? Or did he just tell you?”

Rude hung up. Tseng called back. Left a message. Reminded Rude of the latest psych eval’s results. Like Rude needed reminding. He grabbed the bag, paid the bill, and went back to Chelsea’s.

__

“And you don’t have anything else? Not a damned idea?”

“Stop shouting at me! He wasn’t right, I didn’t ask questions! I did the best I could but I can’t keep watch over a grown man all day!”

“I’m not fucking shouting! I’m trying to find my partner!”

“And I’m trying to help you but you can’t blame me for him being gone!”

“Then why can’t you tell me anything else?”

“What more can I tell you?” Hands slamming into the tabletop, making plates jump and a knife clatter to the floor. “Tell me what you want to know!”

“Why are you here and he isn’t?”

__

They haven’t been able to look at each other for two days. Together almost all of it but neither can bear to look at the other’s face. Rude is sure that something in one of them is going to crack soon, say something other than the barest politenesses, commonplace things that come out terse and sharp. But he’s been sure of that for at least a day and a half and neither of them is showing any signs of letting up.

The police and coastal patrols are coming up empty and it’s beginning to look like they are going to have to go public with this to get anywhere. Nobody has heard or seen anything more of Reno. He’s just vanished.

The tension is ratcheting up so much that he can almost hear the mechanical click of it. There’s a tropical storm brewing offshore and he blames it on that.

__

Day three. The storm arrives, crashing into the coastline with winds and rains and flooding out the cars left under her apartment building. He’d moved hers and his both to higher ground, the walks back getting in his cardio for the day but it isn’t severe enough to not put the shutters down and ride it out.

The power goes. The building shakes, swaying in the winds and rain comes in under the glass door because it is raining sideways.

“He’s out there in this,” he says out loud, not really to her but not totally to himself either.

“Don’t,” she begs. “You know what’s going on out there, don’t.”

Rude knows that she is thinking about the way that the ocean floor gets tossed up, reworked and things long buried end up on the beaches. He knows that she thinks that is going to happen to Reno, that he will be so much detritus up on the beach once the storm passes. He knows that because that is what he is thinking too.

“It’s just honest.”

And she laughs. Long and loud and without mirth at all. Several minutes of this and she finally calms enough to fire at him, “Since when has honesty ever been a Turk policy?”

The look he gives her has sent better men running but she doesn’t run. She doesn’t have it in her to run and where would she go? Her bedroom? Or maybe she’s just had it and is as fed up as he is.

And she mocks him, “I promise you that I’ll protect you. You don’t have to worry. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Slinging his words back at her from a lifetime ago, when things were different and he still had the capacity to hope.

“Fuck you.” Eloquent. The wind howls, something somewhere snaps. “I tried! I came for you, tried to find you. But you were gone.” He crossed the floor to where she stood, shaking slightly but defiant as he loomed. “So don’t you ever throw that back at me. I TRIED.”

“You tried then gave me up for dead? After how long? A day or two? I wasn’t hiding Rude! I’ve been right here the whole time!” Not strictly true but she had been here for a very long time and he was from here. Had family here.

“You should be dead!” He’s yelling at her again and tells himself that he doesn’t give a shit. “You should be out there six feet under or a thousand feet down under Midgar instead of standing here telling me not to be realistic about my partner being dead!”

Her slap makes his ears ring.

And he’s not sure what his initial goal was in grabbing her messy ponytail but he’s not certain that it was to drag her forward and kiss her hard enough for her teeth to make his lip bleed. But she doesn’t hit him again and in the morning, when the storm has passed and he’s gingerly sipping coffee around that split lip and making a quick survey of the scratches down his back he thinks that was probably the best thing he could have done.

The sun glints brightly on the edges of the murky waves and something too red to be a natural product of the sea is tangled a few miles down the beach with driftwood, seaweed, and muddy sand.


End file.
